<p>cellardweller, your D's approach was exactly my approach, but I'm far from being in the top 2% (so we're talking about some different schools!). My GPA was in the <25% or 25%-50% range for all the schools I applied to, but my ACT was at or >75% for all of them. I figured, with an upward GPA trend and good ECs/essays, I might get into a reach school(s) and a couple targets. Of the 18 schools I applied to, I've had people tell me 11 are slight reach to high reach, 6 are slight match to high match, and 1 was a safety. Only my safety school accepts >50% of applicants. No matter what anyone else says, for me I have no doubt about my approach.</p>
<p>I applied to 13. It wasn't so bad because all but 2 accepted the common app...so I just had to do a ton of supplements. But, like everyone else said, it depends which schools you are applying to. If they all strongly reccommend interviews, it might be a bit stressful with 10-15. I only did 6 interviews and it wasn't so bad.</p>
<p>Of the 18 schools I applied to, only 10 do evaluative interviews and of those, I interviewed with 8 (7 in my area and 1 on campus). While it was a lot of interviewing, I spread them out from July to January and am really glad I did it. Each one gave me extra perspective by getting the viewpoints of the interviewer.</p>
<p>20 is an outrageous amount of applications to send in, there is no way you should apply to more than 10 schools in my opinion. I applied to 6 and that was a plenty for me to feel like I made a sound decision on where to go. The fees from the applications will pile up, and unless you are sending in the same exact common application to 4-5 of your schools, I would say max amount to do would be 8. Pick your top 5 and then apply early action to them.</p>
<p>Interviews can be very influential in determining if the schools wants you there.</p>
<p>futurmillionair:</p>
<p>You assume all schools have an unrestricted early action program. Most highly selective schools don't. In my daughter's case all schools were either early decision or single choice early action. That means max one school early. She had no clear early decision school as first choice and therefore applied SCEA. Had she applied RD to 8 schools only her chances would still be around 50/50 of getting in anywhere.</p>
<p>Idk.. it depends on time and money... unless you get the free apps (which really help out) each app is almost $50 if you applied to 35 schools it would cost..$1750!!!!!!! I'm sorry but there is no way it is worth that.. not to mention paying for transcripts and test score reports... I would pick 10 or less you really like and work the hardest on them, start in the summer. After you finish them use only the free apps you get and just apply to as many as you have time on and are interested in. That is basically what I did and I ended up only applying to 8 schools... bc I got good offers from my favorite schools... Idk... hope it helps..</p>
<p>My D applied to 15, which I think was just right for her. She used the Common App at 11 schools, and 6 waived the app fee. The essay questions in the supplements and non-Common App forms were similar, so she adapted her responses to her fit with each particular school. It was manageable.</p>
<p>Are all of you "high number appliers" not looking for need based aid? Seems with the huge cost to apply to all of these schools plus spending $18 for each CSS Profile, you could hardly qualify as really needing need based aid.</p>
<p>$1,000 in application fees is nothing compared to $100,000 or more in need based aid over 4 years. For my D the sole public she applied to, a UC, was the most expensive choice as an OOS.</p>
<p>Hahaha. I know someone who applied to 32+ universities. It's almost like a lottery ticket...</p>
<p>You would seriously be okay with going to every single one of that 35? If not, eliminate some. Leave a super safety, maybe one or two more safeties that you wouldn't mind attending, some matches that you can really imagine yourself at, and maybe a couple reaches just to see..</p>
<p>Like everyone else said, apps take up not only money but TIME. With on average at least two essays per app (and even on the common app, it's recommended to do the supplemental apps).. that's seventy essays.</p>
<p>I applied to nine.. which is really plenty enough for me. It also cost me about $1000 in fees (about $700 for app fees, the rest in financial aid/mailing stuff..).</p>
<p>And what about your poor TEACHERS/COUNSELOR who will be writing you letters of recommendations? I'm sure no counselor would want to touch 35 applications for one student (mine's bugged enough by a couple), PLUS mid-year reports.</p>
<p>Lastly.. if you do get in to most of them, and thus end up not attending all but one.. you're taking away someone else's chance at a college they might very well be dying to attend. If you seriously won't go, don't apply.</p>
<p>Sorry if any of this was a repost.. 8 pages of text was too much for me to even consider (:</p>
<p>This is from another similar forum:
"I've taken away a spot to someone who actually may have really wanted to go to such and such school"
Schools admit many more students than spaces, because they know their yield rate (the percent that actually enroll) will be way under 100%. And, of course, they usually put many qualified students on the wait list just in case their yield comes up short. You don't have to worry that somehow you bumped a motivated applicant into oblivion - skip the guilt!</p>
<p>Roger, are you sure? This may have been true a few years ago but witht the "feeding frenzy" that has started in the last 2-3 years, is it still true? I can't believe some kids are not getting waitlisted to schools they really would like to attend and may have been considered for had not so many others shotgunned their applications. Plus I wonder how many of these multi multi applicants are applying to so many schools just so they could say they did (or possibly got accepted to and then turned down such and such school). I find it hard to believe there isn't ego involved in many of these cases.</p>
<p>I think that it depends on your goals. If you desire and expect scholarships or admittance into an honors college, the applications will require much more work. If you only want admittance they are fairly easy. Someone mentioned that application fees will cost lots. That is true. I think that you should be able to reduce your list greatly by researching the admissions standards for the colleges on your list. Don't forgot that some colleges have very different standards for OOS students. This website is an excellent place to find this info. Use the Stats Profiles tool to find the data for past years. Good luck.</p>
<p>i think it really depends on how many essays you could actually recycle, and how many letters of rec your teachers are willing to send.</p>
<p>My main challenge is teacher recs. My school gathers applications and sends them as one unit, and watches each step we take (and assists) very closely. I feel bad even asking for eight (junior right now and visiting the first three at the end of this month and the beginning of the next). I have absolutely no plans to apply to more than eight. I have only ever been to one of the schools (where I'm also legacy) but plan on visiting most of the otheres. There is no way I would ask my teachers to write recs because I didn't do enough research. (I KNOW that is not the case with everyone, but it is with some.) Bear in mind, however, that I go to a very small prep school, so: 1.) writing recs is a HUGE project for the teachers that they take several months on per student, and literally tens of hours per students and 2.) there are only about a dozen teachers to bear the load.</p>
<p>I would recommend starting the apps EARLY if you are applying to more than a couple schools. There are so many people who decided early in high school where they are applying and don't start apps until they have a senior courseload to conted with. Go into senior year with a huge start on your apps. I have about seven apps from this year sitting next to me. I won't be filling out these exact apps- they will change before next year- but I have penciled on all of them so that I have known from the get-go the general idea of what these colleges will want from me.</p>
<p>In the UK everyone can apply to a maximum of 6 schools through the universal online application program.</p>
<p>Do you think they should do that here?</p>
<p>honestly...dont worry about applying to a lot of schools. its only undergraduate work. when you apply for grad/med/law school, they just look at your grades, not so much the institution. </p>
<p>and when you start working..its all about work experience and just having a degree.</p>
<p>If you eliminate some safeties, and then drop some that you can't imagine attending, I bet you'll be fine.</p>
<p>For example, I really wanted to apply to Columbia, but then I realized I wouldn't go if I got in because it was too far and the cost of living in NYC is too high. I would be spending 70 dollars just to see if I got in, not to actually attend.</p>
<p>I'm sure there's a few on your list like that.</p>